Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
6. Reproduce themselves as described by John von Neumann, in five
fundamentally different modes, of which the fifth, the “probabilis-
tic mode of self-reproduction”, closely parallels biological evolu-
tion through mutations (i.e., genetic algorithms), so that “highly
complex, powerful automata can evolve from inefficient, simple,
weak automata.” [7] (The previous chapter discusses robot repro-
duction.)
7. Can have an unbounded life span through self-repairing mecha-
nisms. (The diagnosis of faulty software and electronic or mechan-
ical hardware is an easier task than the feats in medical diagnosis
that have already been achieved.
12
And repairing such faults re-
quires nothing more advanced than the self-replicating technolo-
gies described earlier.
13
)
Others who have listed criteria for the existence of robot life, criteria that
they themselves conclude are attainable, include John Kemeny and Joe
Weizenbaum. Kemeny presents six criteria which, he claims, distinguish
living from inanimate matter: metabolism, locomotion, reproducibility,
individuality, intelligence, and a natural composition. In all six criteria
Kemeny asserts that AI servo-mechanisms
14
clearly pass the test. And
as for Weizenbaum, a critic of AI, he accepts that computers are suffi-
ciently “complex and autonomous” to be called an “organism” with “self-
consciousness” and an ability to be “socialized”. He sees no way to put a
bound on the degree of intelligence such an organism could, at least in
principle, attain. [7]
Stevan Harnad contributes to the discussion on whether robots are
alive by invoking a Turingesque argument. Harnad's logic, in answer to
the question, “How do we know that this machine is really alive?”, is
simply that
If there are two structurally and functionally indistinguishable sys-
tems, one natural and the other man-made, and their full causal
mechanism is known and understood, what does it even mean to
ask “But what if one of them is really alive, but the other is not?”
What property is at issue that one has and the other lacks, when all
properties have already been captured by the engineering? [8]
12
See the section “Expert Systems” in Chapter 6.
13
Again, see the section “Robot Reproduction” in Chapter 11.
14
A servomechanism is a feedback system used in the automatic control of a mechanical device.
